We offer these thoughts a few days before the UN General Assembly votes on a resolution condemning the United States for the embargo against Cuba.

“For decades,” journalist Marc Frank reminds us in Cuban Revelations, “Cubans who left the island – especially for the United States – were considered traitors who were joining a foreign power’s attempts to overthrow the nation.”

In Cuba, this was the government’s rationale for restricting the liberties of all Cubans to leave and return to their country as they pleased. But, a little more than two years ago, President Raúl Castro issued a strong signal that the weather was going to change.

Speaking before Cuba’s National Assembly, Castro said: “Today, the overwhelming number of Cubans are émigrés for economic reasons…What is a fact is that almost all of them maintain their love for the family and the homeland of their birth and, in different ways, demonstrate solidarity toward their compatriots.”

In January of this year, nearly all travel restrictions on Cubans were dismantled. Now, as we have noted previously, Cubans who want to travel to the U.S. face fewer restrictions than nearly all U.S. residents who want to travel to Cuba. President Obama acted wisely to repeal the harsh restrictions his predecessor imposed on family travel in 2004. Now, the right of Cuban Americans to visit their families on the island is unlimited. Upwards of 350,000 exercised that right just last year.

The president also reopened channels for people-to-people travel and, as we reported last week, non-Cuban American travel to Cuba has hit peak levels. But, if you look at the numbers for 2012, you will see that the more than one million Canadians, more than 150,000 travelers from the U.K., and over one-hundred thousand tourists from Germany, Italy, and France exceeded the Americans (98,050) who got to visit Cuba, and none of them had to apply to their governments for a “license” in order to go. We were the exception.

***

It is not new that the United States is criticized by friend and foe alike. In October, however, the U.S. image has taken a pounding overseas; and, to be clear, this not a public relations problem. The drumbeat got louder and more insistent over much larger issues.

Criticism of the U.S. spiked when the U.S. government was shut down, the nation’s credit rating was at risk, and Congress frightened bondholders and contractors with the threat that we would not pay our bills. China called for a “de-Americanized world.” A columnist in The Guardian wrote: “The rottenness of modern Washington makes outsiders gasp.”

Strong stuff, but nothing in comparison to the uproar caused by revelations that the growing global scandal over surveillance by the National Security Agency now encompassed the private communications of 35 world leaders. This will multiply the backlash the U.S. already felt when Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a state visit over reports of U.S. snooping in her country and her private office.

Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is especially incensed. As USA Today reports, she told President Obama that “spying among friends cannot be,” there needs to be trust among allies and partners, and that “such trust now has to be built anew.”

This Article states “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation,” and that “everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

If the amendment happens what difference will make it? The U.S. Senate waited sixteen years to adopt the covenant and, when it did so, it added fourteen reservations, understandings, and declarations that so denuded its force that scholars said the U.S. had perpetrated a fraud on the global community.

Two weeks ago, the United States was among 15 member nations scheduled to have their human rights records reviewed by a UN committee in Geneva, and NSA spying was already “slated for discussion.” But, the U.N. Human Rights Committee cancelled the U.S. review and rescheduled it for March 2014.

“The USA highlights its regret at having to make such a request, which is due to the ongoing government shutdown,” the committee said. Fourteen other countries were reviewed. For the U.S., they had to make an exception.

***

On October 29th, when the General Assembly votes on its 22nd resolution to condemn the U.S. embargo on Cuba, the U.S. will again stand virtually alone in asserting the rightness of our views. In President Obama’s first term, Ambassador Ronald Godard argued that the U.N. had no business even debating the question, because the U.S. had a “sovereign right” to punish Cuba for its political system as part of its bilateral policies. “Butt out;” he seemed to say, “this is America’s right to do as it pleases.”

This idea, grounded in the notion of American exceptionalism, so pervasive in U.S. foreign policy, combines our faith in the “rightness of our cause” with our overwhelming power.

Recent events demonstrate just how damaging this attitude can be. It leads this country to impose its will in ways that hurt our interests internationally, harms the alleged beneficiaries locally, and causes them to turn against us politically.

The embargo may seem a small thing to many in the U.S. It is, in fact, a much larger and more powerful symbol than many understand. Reversing it will not only help Cubans lead better lives, it could be a small step in a bigger effort to change how the U.S. is perceived and received in the world. Someday, we hope that President Obama acts to dismantle the embargo, remove all travel restrictions, and put us on course for a normal relationship with Cuba.

It won’t solve all of our problems. But it would make him truly exceptional.

Supporters of U.S. sanctions say that strangling Cuba’s economy will lead the system to fail (someday), and motivate Cubans to rise up against their government and establish a multiparty liberal democracy.

The rest of us – the majority – are supposed to be okay with substituting sadism for diplomacy; and, since a cornerstone of sanctions is blocking travel to Cuba by most U.S. residents, the fact that our policy contributes to joblessness and hunger on the island remains hidden from most of us.

Less well known, however, is that we also imposed the embargo on ourselves. We’re not just punishing Cubans but also exacting real hardships on our families and our neighbors.

Case in point: Under the embargo, people with diabetes in the U.S. are not allowed to have access to a promising treatment that could stop needless amputations of their limbs because it was developed in Cuba.

Last week, we carried a report on a drug called Heberprot-P, developed by Cuba’s Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. According to the Associated Press, this medication is already at work in fifteen countries and treating more than 100,000 patients.

Because the therapy was developed at an Institute considered to be an arm of Cuba’s government, it can’t be put to clinical trials or marketed in the U.S. without approval by our government.

Seeking that permission would be pretty big health story, right?

But, when U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia (FL-26) wrote a letter to the Treasury Department urging that it grant a license so the drug could be tested in the U.S., the Miami Herald covered the political controversy that ensued when hardliners asked if “Garcia’s exile bona fides” could still be trusted.

That issue is very interesting to people who live in the Miami media market, and we understand that the Herald was doing its job by covering it.

But this problem is not about politics but diabetes, and it’s a big problem.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 25.6 million adults in the U.S. live with diabetes. Some of them develop peripheral arterial disease and fall prey to “ulcers and infections that may lead to amputation.” As the AP said last week, an estimated 70,000 Americans undergo an amputation every year due to complications from diabetes.

What if we could drive that number down, closer to zero?

Suppose Cuba has, in fact, developed a treatment that would make many of those amputations unnecessary; wouldn’t we want clinical trials to test its efficacy and safety here in the U.S.?

If it proved to be effective, wouldn’t we want that therapy made available to our family, neighbors, and friends as soon as possible?

Of course, we believe that. But, not everyone does. Capitol Hill Cubans called a therapy that is already helping people in foreign countries avoid unnecessary amputations “the latest Castro bio-scam.” Of course, they say that other remedies exist, but what they really want is for Rep. Garcia’s effort to fail.

Really? They want to block access by their fellow Americans to a potentially transformative therapy before they know whether it works; even if they have to lose their legs?

This is the problem with Cuba policy.

Our country has been stuck for six decades with a policy that doesn’t work, because the embargo debate has mostly taken place inside a community that’s been preoccupied with exacting revenge on the Cuban revolution since 1959.

When the debate about Cuba and its system gets turned into a discussion of whether Americans should have access to a drug that helps them with a horrible condition caused by diabetes – even if that discovery came from Communist Cuba – it makes some hardliners very nervous.

Because if it suddenly seems sensible to bend the embargo to stop the suffering it imposes on us, it could soon become reasonable to end the embargo because it causes even more suffering in Cuba.

Well, here’s a news flash: U.S. sanctions against Cuba and against diabetics here in America have failed to bring down Cuba’s government. We need a new policy, not a dumb-bargo.

This week, in Cuba news…

U.S.-CUBA RELATIONS

Although tourist travel is still banned, and U.S. residents still require a license before traveling to the island, travel is rising. The number of U.S. citizens not of Cuban descent going to Cuba has reached record highs, reports Reuters. Cuba’s National Statistics Office recorded nearly 100,000 U.S. visitors in 2012, not counting the 350,000 Cuban-Americans estimated to have traveled from the U.S. This number is up from 73,500 the previous year, and indicates that in five years, the number of U.S. travelers going to Cuba doubled.

In addition to providing unlimited family travel for Cuban Americans, President Obama opened up people-to-people travel to the island in early 2011. His reforms catalyzed interest in visiting Cuba and opened up new, legal opportunities for U.S. residents to go. “Cuba has so much to offer in terms of culture, history and issues of mutual concern – healthcare, education and the environment – and students, professionals, people of faith are curious,” said Collin Laverty, CDA advisor and head of the travel provider Cuba Educational Travel.

By adding Cuba Travel Services Inc. and Gulfstream Air Charters, Tampa International Airport is hoping to meet demand by increasing to four the number of carriers serving the Cuban markets. As the Tampa Tribune reported last week, they join Tampa’s other two Cuba carriers, Island Travel & Tours and ABC Charters, which are increasing the number of flights to Havana, Cuba and expanding its destination cities.

Havana Ferry Partners LLC presented plans for U.S.-Cuba passenger ferry and cargo routes to the Manatee County Port Authority in South Florida this week, reports Bradenton Herald. The plans include fast passenger ferries with 150-person capacity, as well as cargo service. Leonard Moecklin, vice president of the company, told the Port Authority, “It’s time to go to Cuba,” making his case by highlighting potential multi-sectoral business opportunities.

Last month, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) confirmed that passenger ferry or cruise ship service to Cuba is not authorized under existing U.S. rules, and that it does not foresee approving additional means of travel to the island.

OFAC denied approval to Havana Ferry Partners LLC and several other aspiring providers last year, saying their proposals are “beyond the scope of current policy,” which mandates travel to Cuba must be by way of air charter,reports Cuba Standard. According to the article, Havana Ferry LLC, which has both Cuba and U.S.-based investors, has enlisted a Washington lobbying firm to bolster its efforts.

Oscar Hijuelos, the Cuban-American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner, died of a heart attack last weekend in Manhattan, reports the Associated Press. He was 62 years old. Hijuelos was born in the U.S., the son of Cuban immigrant parents. In 1990, he became the first Hispanic to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.

More recently, Hijuelos authored a memoir titled, Thoughts Without Cigarettes, in which he details his struggles against the label of being an “ethnic” writer. He also writes of a personal loss of Cuban identity after he fell sick on the island during a visit as a child and, after a year-long hospitalization in the U.S.,lost his Spanish-speaking ability. Hijuelos is survived by his wife Lori Marie Carlson, reports Reuters.

Juan Domingo Astiasarán Ceballo has been named Cuba’s Ambassador to Paraguay, marking the normalization of relations between the two countries, reports BBC Mundo. Cuba suspended relations with Paraguay in the summer of 2012 after the dismissal of President Fernando Lugo, which Cuba’s government deemed a “Parliamentary coup.” Cuba declared that it “would not recognize any authority that didn’t come from legitimate suffrage and the exercise of the Paraguayan people’s sovereignty.”

Following elections in April, Horacio Cartes’ was inaugurated this August as Paraguay’s president, and Paraguay has been readmitted to Mercosur and Unasur, the diplomatic and economic organizations that foster Southern Hemisphere integration. Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay have also reinstated their diplomatic posts.

Representatives of Brazil’s sugar industry met with Cuba’s state company Azcuba in Havana last week to negotiate a $200 million project, reports Cuba Standard. The project aims to revitalize Cuba’s sugar industry through a pilot project at a Cienfuegos sugar mill, seeking to increase sugar production from 25,000 metric tons to 140,000 metric tons. A subsidiary of Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht has been jointly operating the mill since signing a 13-year contract with Azcuba last year.

Cuba Ron will release a high-end rum through French company Belvédère this month, reports Cuba Standard. Belvédère, which signed a 5-year contract with the Cuban company, plans to bottle and market the rum to 140 countries. Cuba Ron has long held a contract with French company Pernod Ricard for its popular Havana Club line. The sale of Cuban rum remains illegal in the United States.

IN CUBA

The Catholic Church in Cuba will begin offering business workshops and a degree program to Cubans wishing to enter the growing private sector, reports the Associated Press. The Compañía de Jesús y los Hermanos La Salle will lead a three-month workshop, as well as a two-year degree program administered through la Universidad de La Salle in Mexico, and the Havana Office of the Archbishop will give a one-month course, reports Diario de Cuba. The programs, to be offered entirely independent of the state education system, will cover a basic entrepreneurial skill-set which includes accounting, tax regulations, and material sourcing.

The series “is designed to teach people basic business management,” said Jorge Mandilego, director of the Office of the Archbishop’s CubaEmprende, who described the program as offering “basic but necessary knowledge to adapt to our country’s plan,” reports the Associated Press.

Through its publications Palabra Nueva and Espacio Laical, Cuba’s Catholic Church has encouraged dialogue regarding Cuba’s economic reform process, often publishing articles on the subject by economists and other academics.

The National Association of Economists and Accountants of Cuba (ANEC) began offering finance and accounting courses to cuentapropistas and cooperative members in both state and non-state sectors last month in the Villa Clara province. In October 2011, the Catholic Church announced an MBA program in collaboration with professors from the San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia in Spain.

At a meeting of the national committee of the Union of Cuban Journalists (UPEC), Rolando Alfonso Borges, of the Central Ideology Committee of the Cuban Communist Party, spoke against secrecy in the island’s media. Borges stated: “the will of the party is that there not be secrecy. We perceive that there is movement in this direction. The country needs that, and needs balance,” according to an article published by the UPEC news outlet.

During the meeting, Communist Party officials and journalists also spoke at length aboutintegrating Cuba’s youth into the field of journalism. Participants emphasized how important it is to keep up with current technology and to make sure to create clear paths for youth to join the profession. Karina Marrón, one of the participants of the event, notedthat “A lot of young people are writing blogs, and we cannot ignore the richness in them.”

Earlier this month, blogger Yoani Sánchez wrote about the distinctions between “official” and “independent” journalism on the island. Independent journalists and bloggers often face temporary detentions and other obstacles; this week, five journalists for Hablemos Press who had been detained since late last week were freed by Cuban authorities, reports EFE.

An article published in Granma provides a description of private tutoring in Cuba, one of the categories of self-employment legalized in 2010. The article interviews several tutors, as well as students and their parents, discussing the different types of tutoring available, and why parents and students feel that after-school supplementary learning is necessary. The end of the article denounces some school teachers, who are not legally permitted to work as tutors, who are doing so regardless, and quotes a student who says that one of her teachers would not include the entire curriculum during the school day, and would teach subjects not covered only in tutoring. The author criticizes placing pressure on students to go to tutoring, calling such actions a “lack of professional ethics,” reports EFE.

In a response, BBC Mundo reporter Fernando Ravsberg criticizes the article for its rebuke of professors that take on tutoring “to make ends meet,” and suggests that “it would suffice to sit down with teachers to search for solutions that are cognizant of the needs of Cuban society and those of educators.”

Since 2008, 434 agricultural co-operatives have been shuttered because they are not sufficiently profitable, reports EFE. The co-ops “did not generate the profits necessary for self-financing,” said Ricardo Monzón, an official for Cuba’s Ministry of Agriculture.

Monzón stated that the co-operative’s land would be taken over by private farmers or allocated to other co-operatives. Debts held by shuttered co-operatives “have been renegotiated” with the national bank system, and debts from those cooperatives being run by others “are in the process of being financed for up to 25 years,” reports AFP.

This is another sign of the difficulties Cuba is facing in conquering its dependence on imported food — a national priority.

Cuba’s government denounced the damage that the U.S. embargo has caused its health sector at the World Trade Organization (WTO), reports Prensa Latina. Mónica Rodríguez, Cuba’s representative to international organizations in Geneva, Switzerland, said the embargo has prevented the purchase of medicines and other critical health resources for over fifty years. According to Rodríguez, the total cost of the damage is over one trillion dollars. Rodríguez stated that banks from places like Canada and Zurich have bowed to U.S. pressure, suspending money transfers to Cuba, including money that would have been used for buying products such as flu vaccines. She added that the embargo has negatively affected the work of NGO MediCuba-Suisse in combating cancer and promoting HIV/AIDS prevention. Cuba offers universal healthcare to all of its citizens.

According to Orlando Rey, an official at Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and the Environment (CITMA), a new law is being prepared to modernize Cuba’s water supply systems, reports Prensa Latina. During a conference in Havana, Rey stated that water scarcity and sanitation, compounded by threats to water access by climate change, are significant issues for environmental planning on the island. Rey did not give details about what will be contained in the new law.

Since Cuba and the U.S. live in the same environmental neighborhood, the costs of climate change are also being borne on this side of the Florida Straits. Scientists are predicting that “Miami…is doomed,” which makes a clear case for environmental cooperation between the U.S. and Cuba.

Around the Region

After seizing a U.S.-operated oil survey ship, and claiming it was violating Venezuela’s maritime territory, Venezuela’s government has agreed to free the ship and its 36 crew members, reports Reuters. The Teknik Perdana is owned by a Malaysian company, was captained by a Ukrainian, and was sailing under a Panamanian flag in territory contested between Guyana and Venezuela. The incident brings to the forefront long-held territorial disputes between the countries.

Foreign Minister Elías Jaua of Venezuela and Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett met in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, to discuss the incident and the disputed economic zone waters, reports the Associated Press. The governments of Venezuela and Guyana agreed to meet again in four months to discuss how to proceed on the maritime boundaries dispute, reports Stabroek News. The area in dispute, the Essequibo region, is the most substantial territorial and sea dispute in South America, and claims to this area date back to 1897. There has been no word on whether Venezuela will drop the charges that the ship captain still faces.

Five days after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot from the surface of her brain, President Cristina Fernández was released from the hospital, reports BBC News. She returned to her official residence where doctors advised her to observe “strict rest” for thirty days. There is no set date for President Fernández’s return to work. Previously, Fernández had plans to campaign in support of congressional candidates from her party for the midterm elections taking place on October 27th. Vice President Amado Boudou is currently carrying out her public duties.

Recommended Reading

We thank the Inter-American Dialogue for their generosity in allowing us to link to this issue of its Daily Latin America Advisor. The publication includes an article – Are Raúl Castro’s Reforms Helping Cuba’s Economy – based on a Q+A with experts on reform process. Collin Laverty, CDA Advisory Board member, says, “Albeit slowly, the process continues to be two steps forward, a half a step backwards, and demographics and economic necessity should keep it that way.”

In this “Letter From Havana,” Jon Lee Anderson tells the story of Leonardo Padura, whom he describes as a “novelist, a journalist, and a social critic who has skirted punishment by the ruling Communist Party.” Anderson explains that the nature of Padura’s work isn’t necessarily perceived as offensive to the regime, but it isn’t meaningless either. In the article, Padura’s views towards the current situation in his country are also portrayed. “There is no current policy of what should or should not be published,” said Padura in a speech mentioned in the article.

Sandra Abd’Allah-Álvarez Ramírez examines the emergence of women among Cuba’s self-employed and discusses efforts to create a culture of work that supports women entrepreneurs. She highlights a new website, “Mujeres Emprendedoras,” which features an online forum to discuss women in the workplace, opinion articles, and job postings.

A conceptual art piece being executed by Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley, titled “Trading with the Enemy,” involves homing pigeons trained by the artist to fly from Cuba to Key West, carrying alternately Cuban cigars or lightweight cameras to film the voyage. “I wanted to subvert this billions-of-dollars high-tech system with things that were being used in ancient Sumeria,” says Riley.

Portia Siegelbaum, the CBS correspondent in Cuba, tells the story of a nation-wide process to reduce energy costs that the island’s government implemented in 2005, profiling its results and consequences. In 2005, households in Cuba changed their usual light bulbs for lower intensity ones provided to them by the government. Today, bulbs are often scarce and highly priced.

Tim Johnson discusses the results of the biannual survey “Approval of Leaders: America and the World.” This survey is conducted by Mexico’s Consulta Mitofsky polling firm and compiles approval ratings for the 19 largest countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The results ironically reflect how the oft U.S.-designated“bad boys” of Latin America and the Caribbean are among the most popular leaders throughout the region.

Recommended Viewing

This photo exhibition is part of the Haydee Santamaría Latin American Art Collection on display in Havana until December at the Casa de las Américas Galería Latinoamericana. The collection continues its celebration of the “Year of Photography” and is titled First Nations: Images of Indigenous America in the 20th Century. The exhibition is comprised of almost entirely black and white photos and depicts indigenous people from Mexico, Perú, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador and Guatemala.

On October 29th, UN General Assembly will vote on a resolution to condemn the U.S. embargo of Cuba, and we can say with confidence the outcome is not in doubt.

The U.S. has lost this vote twenty-one years in a row.

Last year, as Reuters reported, the resolution was adopted by an overwhelming margin.

188 member states voted against the U.S. Only Israel and Palau stood with us. Micronesia and The Marshall Islands could not decide whether they supported or opposed the embargo and so they abstained.

Today, we can say with certainty the UN will pass this resolution again, and the U.S. will get its “clock cleaned” for the 22nd consecutive year.

Already, 147 member states plus the European Union, representing 28 other nations, have filed written reports with the Secretary General, indicating they oppose the embargo, and do not have rules that limit their diplomatic or economic relations with Cuba as U.S. law insists they must do.

We’ve read a compilation of the reports to the U.N. Secretary General by member states and also by UN agencies that discuss the impact of the embargo on their programs.

Year after year, certain things catch our attention. No nation that supports the embargo – not the U.S., Israel, or Palau – publishes a word in Secretary General’s report defending the policy.

The Holy See – The Vatican – states for the record it has “never drawn up or applied economic, commercial or financial laws or measures against Cuba.”

All of Latin America is against the policy. Brazil, joining close U.S. allies like Colombia and Mexico, discusses how it is vigorously cultivating a closer economic relationship with Cuba. El Salvador suggests the U.S. is living in the past, saying the embargo “continues to call to mind a chapter of history that we would all wish to bring to a close once and for all.”

The Russian Federation, in its report, agrees with El Salvador, faintly praising the administration for relaxing restrictions, for example, on family travel, but expresses hope it will “lift the blockade once and for all.”

All of this, of course, matters diplomatically. But, there’s a larger truth about the U.S. embargo documented in the Secretary General’s report.

Rather than helping Cubans become “free,” the embargo is helping to keep Cubans hungry and poor. Think about that.

The U.S. has historically prided itself for being a leader in global food security. We spend, on average, $2.2 billion providing food aid to hungry people around the world every year.

But, U.S. sanctions make it harder for Cuban farmers to get the inputs they need to make their land more productive, they make it more expensive for Cuba to import food, and they block Cuban farmers from producing agricultural exports that could reach U.S. tables, putting more money in their pockets.

These stresses were magnified last year after Hurricane Sandy, because the embargo constrained Cuba from gaining immediate access to humanitarian assistance. Sandy wiped out 17,000 homes and affected nearly a quarter-million homes, so Cubans who suffered the greatest effects of the storm were punished by longer-than-necessary waits for emergency aid including food.

What about jobs? Cuba is overhauling its economy, shrinking the size of the state payrolls, gradually opening its private sector, encouraging Cubans to open small businesses of their own or to work in cooperatives.

Tourist dollars are driving Cuba’s private sector and fostering the growth of small businesses.

But, the Secretary General’s report estimates that, without U.S. sanctions, 2 million more U.S. residents would visit the island and generate close to two billion dollars in receipts for Cuba’s tourism industry.

So, every minute we keep travel restrictions in place we’re costing the Cuban economy jobs, and we’re stopping every day Cubans from exercising more control over their lives.

If this is the message of the U.S. embargo – more hungry Cubans, fewer Cuban jobs – it’s no wonder that the world votes against us year after year.

Forget our image in the U.N. Is that the kind of people we want to be? What a dumb-bargo.

With saturation coverage of the U.S. government shutdown, you might have heard stories about how searches for hikers lost in National Parks are suspended and 19,000 kids are locked out of Head Start.

You might know one of the 47,000 federal employees out of work in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale areas, as Álvaro Fernández discussed this week, because of the partisan rancor in Congress.

You might have seen reports about flu shots and the food inspections that have stopped. You might have read about some 800,000 furloughed federal employees, some hiding in Washington, D.C. bars celebrating the improvement in their social lives.

It’s not just social programs being affected. The shutdown has even thinned the ranks of “over 960 PhDs, over 4,000 computer scientists, [and] over a thousand mathematicians” that would otherwise be listening to our phone calls and reading our email at the NSA.

Why is this happening? With very limited exceptions, the law prohibits federal employees whose agencies lack appropriations from going to work. Until the shutdown ends, if they even tried to volunteer their services, they’d risk 2 years imprisonment and $5,000 fines.

Yet, one cadre of federal employees remains on the job. Thanks to a ruling by the Broadcasting Board of Governors General Counsel, Radio and TV Martí are considered part of “foreign relations essential to the national security” and their programming aimed at Cuba will continue just as it did before the shutdown began.

Once we learned to our surprise, and perhaps yours, the Martí’s operations are essential to national security, the bilingual members of our staff did something most Cubans can’t do; they tuned in to see what the broadcasts were doing to protect us.

To the Martí’s credit, they are providing regular news briefs about the shutdown, much like what all of us can hear on U.S. stations. One item said ‘medical reforms’ would bring healthcare to many thousands of Americans but it is being tied to the budget. Yesterday morning, they reported that President Obama and Congress have not resolved the problem that has paralyzed the U.S. government, and Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree over how to end the government shutdown.

Then, of course, we heard the Martí’s standard fare: a story on the anniversary of the re-unification of East and West Berlin, and criticism of Cuba’s government about cholera, control of the Internet, and political repression.

We heard a presenter reading personal sales ads (just like Craigslist ads but said aloud) for people selling things, such as bikes, and a musical interlude that featured a selection by Boyz II Men (whose only connection to the island we can figure is the song Beautiful Women, in which the band fantasizes about women of different nationalities including women from Cuba).

It’s hard to imagine how any of this would interest the Martí’s intended audience. In a country with free health care and a National Assembly that meets twice a year, how could Cubans even process the notion of Congress shutting down the entire U.S. government because one of our two major political parties wants to repeal health insurance?

One source on the island confirmed our instinct. He said, “What is important to average Cubans is that the Interests Section is opening and processing visas. There has been some reporting [on the shutdown] here, but it’s not front-and-center on anyone’s radar.”

Having listened to hours of programming, we can’t say what exactly the Martís are doing to protect our national security or what earned its employees their exemption from the shutdown.

Of course, Cubans couldn’t tell you either. The broadcasts are all jammed. They can’t hear them. They haven’t heard the stations since they were first founded in the 1980s, and the money spent on their broadcasts is being wasted.

Consequently, the decision to keep the Martís running amused at least one senior Congressional staffer who told The Cable, “If the Martís shut down, we risk forfeiting our .001% of marketshare on the island we’ve spent decades and hundreds of millions of dollars cultivating.”

Kyle Munzenrieder writing in Miami New Times suggests we think about it this way. As both Martís produce stories about the shutdown, our tax dollars are paying for news reports that Cubans can’t hear about how our government can’t pay for services that we actually need.